Pop the champagne with the pop stars

Stefanie Sun entertains tonight.

PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

After several annual rounds of the Presidential Office and Taipei City Government attempting to outdo each other to throw the biggest New Year's Eve pop-star bash on either ends of the city, the central government seems to have ceded the fight all together this year. Even its DPP buddies in Taipei County Government have thrown in the towel on this one. So this year, the place in northern Taiwan to catch the stars will be at City Hall.

The action starts at 7pm in the square in front of City Hall and will run until 1am. Expect massive crowds and show up well before the starting time if you want to see the stars in person and not just on the monitors.

Taichung

Not to be outdone by the bigger cities to the north and south, Taichung City Government will host a New Year's Eve rager at the stadium of National Taiwan College of Physical Education.

Taking the stage will be local favorites, such as Chang Fei (張菲), WonFu (旺福), Angela Chang (張韶涵), Luo Chi-hsiang (羅志祥) and doubling up appearances with shows in Taipei will be Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿), Ken Chu (朱孝天), Stanley Huang (黃立行) and Tanya Tsai (蔡健雅).

The music starts at 6:30pm and will run until 12:30am. Admission to the stadium is free.

Kaohsiung

The Kaohsiung City Government was playing it coy this week, refusing to divulge the lineup for its New Year's Eve party until the last minute yesterday, pending what a spokeswoman said was final confirmation of acts. Was this because the city government was hopelessly disorganized?